Life Span Development - Exam 1

Development

Patterns of change and growth that begin at conception and continue through the life span

Infancy

First period that includes the development of walking, crawling, growth, and object permanence

Early Childhood

Second period of development that involved the developing of basic communication and includes things such as starting school - The idea of this being a “time of innocence” did not emerge since the 17th century because so many babies died before age 3

Middle to Late Childhood

Third period of development where a young person develops relationships and more complex emotions - late elementary school to middle school

Adolescense

Fourth period of development where people develop more of a personality and their own opinions; they also generally are in high school (truly started emerging in the 1920s when more people began going to high school as opposed to earlier where the vast majority of children in this age group worked in factories and more or less started adulthood earlier)

Early Adulthood

Fifth period of development where people often go off and become more independent through college/work and is generally considered a transitional period

Middle Adulthood

Sixth period of development where people have greater levels of independence as they need to make their own choices; they may be starting families (only emerged when people started living longer and needing to move through life at a slower pace)

Late Adulthood

Seventh and final stage of development where adults may lose independence and lose some cognitive function; during this period people go through retirement and may have grand kids (only emerged when people started living longer and needing to move through life at a slower pace)

Nature vs. Nurture

The idea that there is a combination of nature (genes) and nurture (care and experiences) in development - epigenetic view

Stability vs. Change

The idea that traits may stay the same and/or change over time

Continuity vs. Discontinuity

The idea that change is either slow and gradual or occurs in a stage-like manner

Germinal Period of Prenatal Development

First two weeks after conception. In this stage the zygote (fertilized egg) is created and remains for 4 days. Then cell division occurs through mitosis rapid cell division. After this occurring for a while, it develops into a blastocyst (ball of cells that later develops into the embryo- about the size of a pin head) and the trophoblast (outer layers of cells that provide nutrition and support for the embryo), and it travels to the uterine wall/lining which is the first time someone could tell they are pregnant - only 40% make it through this stage

Embryonic Period of Prenatal Development

2-8 weeks after conception as the rate of cell differentiation increases. The cells become either endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm. Furthermore, every major organ begins to develop, which is why they are more at risk for spina bifida. Furthermore, the amnion (sack of water the baby forms in), umbilical cord (what attaches to placenta to transfer oxygen and nutrients), placenta, and neural tubes all form

Organgenesis

Organ formation during first two months -very vulnerable in this stage

Endoderm

Type of cells that develop during the embryonic stage of prenatal development and go on to form the digestive and respiratory system

Mesoderm

Type of cells that develop during the embryonic stage of prenatal development and go on to form the muscles and skeletal system

Ectoderm

Type of cells that develop during the embryonic stage of prenatal development and go on to form the skin and nervous system

Spina Bifida

A type of neural tube defect (NTD) that can occur along the spine if the neural tube does not close all the way. When the neural tube doesn’t close all the way, the backbone that protects the spinal cord doesn’t form and close as it should. This results in damage to the spinal cord and nerves and will cause physical and cognitive disabilities of varying severities - can be prevented by taking folic acid

Fetal Stage of Prenatal Development

Final stage of prenatal development that occurs 2 months after conception until birth. During this period, growth and development continues and the final elements of physical and cognitive formation really come together. This is also a very critical period for brain development, and physical and cognitive deformities can form in this stage

How early can a fetus survive outside of the womb? Why?

24-25 weeks because the lungs develop around 24 weeks

Neural Tube

A tube-shaped structure that encloses your baby's spinal cord and brain during the early stages of your baby's development

Neurogensis

Period where a generation of new neurons is being created during first trimester to second middle trimester

Neuronal Migration

Period where neurons specialize and move to different locations during late first to second trimester

Neural Connectivity

Period where connections are created between neurons during middles second to third trimester - mental issues can develop during this stage and by the time a baby is born they have between 20 and 100 billion neurons

Teratogen

Any disease, drug, or environmental agent that can harm a developing fetus

What factors can influence the level of harm caused by a teratogen?

Dose (larger amounts and longer exposure), genetic susceptibility, and time of exposure

When is the risk of structural defects the greatets?

During the embryonic period

What is a list of teratogens and other parental factors that can harm a fetus?

Prescription/ no prescription drugs, psychoactive drugs, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, opioids, environmental hazards (radiation and pollution), maternal diseases, maternal diet/nutrition maternal age, and emotional stress

Thalidomide

A drugs from the 1960s that was prescribed for pain and caused deformities in infants. If mother had taken 20-22 day after conception born with no ears, 22 – 27 days no or missing thumbs, 27-33 days stunted legs, and 35-36 days baby not effected

What is cocaine prenatal exposure linked with?

Reduced birth weight, impaired motor and language development, learning disabilities, attention deficits, and high rates of aggression and delinquency

What is heroin prenatal exposure linked with?

Behavior problems and attention deficit later in development

Dilation

The first stage of the birth process when the cervix dilates. This is often the longest stage and can even take hours of days to complete, and it can have a very subtle start

Delivery

The second stage in the birthing process where uterine contractions increase and strength, and the infant is delivered

After-Birth

The final stage of the birth process where the placenta and umbilical cord is expelled. This is the shortest stage

Natural and Prepared Birth

Natural birth is where birth occurs without medication, and a prepared birth is when a mother is educated and breathing tactics and other tactics are used to help with pain

Where do most births occur?

98.5% of births in the USA occur in hospitals. But in other places they use different methods, such as in Holland, 40% of of babies were delivered by midwives

Midwives

Midwives are people who have a career in helping people deliver their children. For low-risk women, midwife care resulted in fewer procedures during delivery and increased satisfaction

Doula

A woman, typically without formal obstetric training, who is employed to provide guidance and support to a pregnant woman during labor. Doula-assisted births were 2X less likely to experience complications and 4X less likely to have low birth weights

Cesarean Section

Accounts for about 26% of USA births and involves cutting a baby out of a mother’s stomach. Sometimes it can occur in an emergency/complications, but some women choose to have it too

Pain Reduction in Labor

Epidurals and Spinal Blocks reduce pain and do not cross the placenta, leaving the baby unaffected, but is lengthens labor. Used in 75% of deliveries. Sedative drugs, on the other hand, are a bad method of pain reduction during labor as they can cross the placenta and sedate the baby as well

Apgar Scale

A method of measuring the health of a newborn by examining heart rate, respiratory effort, muscle tone, reflex, and color. All are rated 0-2. A total score of 0-3 needs immediate resuscitation, 4-6 is moderately depressed, and 7-10 is normal

Preterm Infants

When a baby is born 3 weeks before full term

Small for Date Infants

When an infant weighs less than 90% of babies the same age. May be pre-term of full term

Low Birth Weight Infants

A baby born less than 5 pounds and 8 ounces

What are some factors that can lower the risk of preterm and low weight infants?

A drug called progestin, exercise, better economic positions, good maternal diet, avoiding teratogens, etc

Kangaroo Care

Treatment for preterm infants that involves skin-to-skin contact. Helps to regulates heartbeat, breathing, and temp. It also helps facilitates weight gain, improve sleep, later cognitive function, improve survival, and reduce length of hospital stay - massage therapy is another method that can enhance this

The Postpartum Period

The last 6 months after child birth that involves physical, psychological, and emotional adjustments

Postpartum Depression

A condition experiences when women have sadness, anxiety or despair that they have difficulty coping with daily tasks during the postpartum period. Risk factors for this include a history of depression, anxiety low self-esteem, lack of social support, poor marital relationship, and postpartum blues. This can have long-term effects on a child’s emotions and behavior

What percentage of new mother’s experience postpartum depression? Postpartum blues?

20% have no symptoms, 70% have postpartum blues, and 10% have postpartum depression

Bonding

The formation of a connection, especially a physical bond between parents and the newborn in the period shortly after birth – hospitals in trying to help actually mess with this process. Although this theory has some shaky defense

How can life-experiences negatively effect the postpartum period?

Events that cause a disruption to what is generally expected for new mothers can increase levels of stress, therefore increasing the risk of postpartum depression as well. Furthermore, life altering events can cause financial strain, which can effect the new mother and their partner. Increased stress in both parties is especially dangerous as it can lead to higher risk of substance abuse. It can also be linked to higher risk in domestic abuse and overall relationship decline which is often common during pregnancy and the postpartum period anyway

Neuroconstructivist View

In a neuroconstructivist view, it is believed that biological processes (genes) and environmental conditions (enriched or impoverished) influence brain development. Meaning, a child’s brain has the potential to develop due to its combination of basic wirings and high levels of plasticity, but they need experiences to fully develop

How is brain plasticity an advantage? How can it be a disadvantage?

It allows for growth and change, letting a child adapt to their environment. However, if they are in a bad environment then this plasticity can actually be fairly damaging

Rooting Reflex

Newborn reflex that makes them look for something to suck when touched on the cheek

Sucking Reflex

Automatic suck response when something is placed in an infnt’’s mouth

Grasping Reflex

Newborn reflex response that causes an infant to grasp anything placed in their hand

Moro Reflex

A reflex of infants where they arch their back and stretch their limbs when startled

Dynamic Systems View

A view created by Esther Thelen that believes that motor skills are developed by maturation and development of nervous system, the body’s physical properties (ex:physical strength) and its potential for movement (ex: walking), the child’s motivation to reach a goal and create new motor behavior, and environmental support for the skill

Is the progression of motor development standard?

The progression of motor development is standard but the time in which it takes often isn’t

Cephalocaudal Pattern

A sequence in which the earliest steps occurs at the top – the head – with physical growth and differentiation of features gradually working their way down to the bottom

Proximodistal Pattern

Sequence in which growth starts at the center of the body and moves towards the extremities

Lateralization

Specialization of function in one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex or the other

Height and Weight in babies

95% of full term infants are 18- 20 in and 5-10 pounds. They generally grow an inch per month in first year. Age 2 at about 1/2 of adult height, and growth occurs episodically, in bursts. Birth brain weight is 25% and by 2 its 75%

Vision at Birth

Newborns can only perceive light and dark. Their ability to perceive color does not come until 2-3 months. Visual acuity is 60x worse than an adult, and they prefer looking at faces over other stimuli

Hearing at Birth

A baby develops the ability to hear while still in the womb, which is proven by the fact that they have a preference for their mother’s voice even at birth, indicating they have the ability to remember too. They cannot hear anything below a speaking voice for a while though

Taste at Birth

Infants can distinguish sweet, bitter, and sour. Their tastes can also be influenced by what their mother’s drink ex. liking vs not liking carrot juice

Sleep in Infants

Newborns sleep is for survival, replenishing energy, and brain plasticity. They sleep for about 18 hours a day with about ½ being in REM. Shared sleeping is often linked to SIDS (sudden-infant death syndrome) and is not recommended

What are the benefits of breastfeeding?

There is a plethora of benefits that have been linked to breastfeeding instead of bottle feeding. Babies are less at risk of gastrointestinal infections and respiratory tract infections. They are also less at risk for developing allergies and asthma partially due to better immune systems. To name a few more lower threat factors, infants who breast feed are also less likely to develop infections in general, become overweight, have diabetes, develop SIDS, develop a fever, and be hospitalized. These infants are also more likely to have better cardiovascular fitness. Furthermore, the skin-to-skin contact that breast feeding provides can help infants learn to regulate their temperatures, breathing, and heartrate while also bonding with their mothers. Speaking of mothers, a breastfeeding mother also may have less of a risk for breast cancer, ovarian cancer, type 2 diabetes, and hospitalization.

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Children construct knowledge though exploration and adaption to them environment; Piaget called these organizes systems of knowledge schemes

Assimilation

Puts new information into an existing scheme (ex: sees a sheep and classifies it as a dog)

Accomidation

Experiences disequilibrium upon seeing a new stimulus and will either change an existing scheme or creates a new one (ex: sees a sheep and instead of classifying it as a dog, they make a sheep scheme)

Sensorimotor Stage

Birth to about 2 years; infants construct an understanding of the world by coordination sensory experiences with motor actions -6 stages. In this stage they use senses and developing motor skills to learn. Starts with using actions a reflexes to understand cause and effect and then begins to understand symbolic thinking

Simple Reflexes

The simple reflexes stage occurs from birth to 1 month. In this stage, babies begin to develop coordination of their senses and action through inborn, reflexive behaviors. These reflexes include rooting (looking for something to suck when cheek is touched), sucking (sucking on objects places in their mouth), Moro (startle response where baby arches, pushes head back, and limps fling out before being drawn in close), and grasping (where a baby grabs anything places in their hands

Primary Circular Reactions

Occurs from about 1 to 4 months. In this stage an infant learns to coordinate sensation and two types of schemes: habits and primary circular reactions. Habits would also be considered simple reflexes, and primary circular reactions would be when they attempt to reproduce an action, focused on their own body, that initially occurred by chance

Secondary Circular Reactions

4 to 8 months - In this stage the babies become more object-orientated and move beyond self-preoccupation. Then then slowly learn how to replicate actions that involved pleasurable consequences involving objects

Coordination of Secondary Schemes

8 to 12 months an infant then goes through the coordination of secondary circular reactions. In this stage, a baby enhances their hand-eye coordination and begin to develop schemes and intentionality

Tertiary Circular Reactions

12 to 18 months an infant goes through the tertiary circular reactions, novelty, and curiosity stage. During this time, infants are more curious in nature and will analyze the properties of objects and what happens when they preform certain actions on the objects. In other words, they experiment with new behavior

Internalization of Schemes

18 to 24 months - In this stage, infants develop the ability to interpret basic symbols and form mental representations of such symbols. For instance, they may see a behavior being performed by a classmate and then may replicate it the next day due to the creation of that mental representation

Object Permenance

The understanding that objects exist even if they can no longer be sensed

A-not-B Error

An error that occurs when infants select the familiar hiding place (A) rather than the new hiding place (B) of an object. This may be due because the infant did not properly remember where the object was placed. It may also be because they simply got into the moto habit of reaching for one hiding place instead of another. It is also possible that the error may be linked to attention; an infant with better attention is often able to perform better on this task

Habituation

Learning not to respond to a repeated stimulus as evidence that it is familiar

Operant Conditioning in Infants

Infants at 2.5 months of age can learn info from the experience of being conditioned. ex. string around ankle experiment

Infantile Amnesia

From birth to 3 years it’s hard to create explicit memories. Most infant explicit memories are short-lived and fragile. 6-12 months hippocampus and frontal lobes mature, and by the end of the 2nd years, long-term memory is more reliable

What are the typical steps of language development in infants?

Crying, recognize language sounds, babbling, first words, two words, infants receptive vocabulary exceeds their spoken vocabulary, then vocabulary increase around 18 months

Language

Form of communication spoken, write, or signed that is based on a system of symbols. Consists of the words used by a community and the rules for combining them

Child-Directed Speech

Language spoken in higher pitch and slower speed with simple words and sentences. Recasting – saying what child said but with good grammar, Expending- adds into to what child said, Labeling – name objects child seems interested in

Interactionist View

The idea that children are biologically prepared to learn language but a child’s experiences influence language acquisition

Deferred Imitation

Imitation that occurs after a delay of hours of days

Concepts

Cognitive groupings of similar objects, events, people, or ideas – occur as early as 3-4 months

Emotion

Feeling or affect that occurs when a person is in a state or interaction that is important to them

What is the importance of emotions in infants?

Allows a baby to communicate - ensure needs are met to survive and helps create an early bond – also influence their social responses and adaptive behaviors

Describe how parental smartphone use can affect infant language development

Parental smartphone use can affect a vast array of language development factors. For starters, infants focus on faces and rely on gaze following for one of their first methods of focusing attention and of communicating with caregivers. When caregivers frequently use technology, such a skill is far more difficult to develop. Then, infants will use joint attention to interact and, in a sense, communicate with their caregiver. Once again, with smartphone use, such attention is far less likely to occur. Furthermore, since adults are often more chatty during joint attention, that means infants are also missing out on a good opportunity to expand their vocabularies. On that note, parental responsiveness is also needed for language development, but a parent distracted by a phone is far less likely to be especially responsive. In order for a baby to develop language, they need to have their babblings encouraged and they need parents to communicate with them and acknowledge their needs, meaning technology use puts a rather large barricade on this process. Finally, the number of audible notifications that a parent receives has even been found to be negatively associated with an infants’ vocabulary. When interactions with an infant are interrupted by such notifications, it becomes more difficult to learn new words and at later ages it makes it difficult for young humans to ask follow up questions that is also very important in the process of communication development.

Primary (universal) Emotions

Joy, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, and anger are all programmed in -genetic within first 6 months

Self-Conscious Emotions

Require self-awareness and begin about 18 months. ex: embarrassment, jealousy, pride, guilt, shame, and empathy

Are infants born with a sense of self and personality?

No, it develops early on. About 9 months, recognize separate from others. About 18 months, self-recognition (Ex. Lipstick on the nose experiment). Brain, ability to interact with what is around them, sensory processes, and cognitive development influence this

Temperament

Early, genetically based tendencies to respond in predictable ways to events that serve as building blocks to later personality

Thomas and Chess Research

Dimensions of infant behavior: predictable feeding, activity level, intensity, mood, adaptability to new experiences and tendency to approach or withdraw from new stimuli

What is the difference i brain activity between easy and difficult infants?

Higher activity in right frontal lobe is associated with easy and left frontal lobe is associated with difficult

Is later behavior predicted by early temperament?

It can have some effect but it is likely to be a nature vs. Nurture relation -it can remain, but it also can be altered through nurture

Easy Temperament

About 40% of babies are easy, meaning they are generally in a positive mood, quickly establish routines, and adapt easily to new experiences